Book 2: Heavenly Host Horrors
by Nightshade The Fennekin
Summary: <html><head></head>(Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon, or Corpse Party. All I own is my OC's! This is a sequel! Rated T for safety!) Nightshade's at it again, except with almost everyone involved in the next video game adventure, this time into Corpse Party. Can they make it through Heavenly Host Middle School and get out alive, acting the story out as the characters and ghosts from the game? (Review!)</html>
1. Welcome to Heavenly Host!

**AN: Hey look, a Corpse Party crossover with Pokémon, and really long chapters! YAAAAAAAAY! We finally made it through the FNAF one! Now, with the participating OC's, I had to cut a few corners with this one, like with Nightshade being Naomi instead of, more fittingly, Seiko, and Hunter, despite being a dude, being Yuka, because Rin and Len's bro/sis relationship doesn't work out, and Len being Tokiko despite the fact that he's well... A he... I'm rambling on, lets get to the list of who's who, then the story. One last thing before a list, this Corpse Party crossover is the one for the PC. **

**PARTICIPATING OC'S**

**Ed the Jolteon as Satoshi Mochida**  
><strong>Nightshade the Fennekin as Naomi Nakashima<strong>  
><strong>Zahri the Bayleef as Ayumi Shinozaki<strong>  
><strong>Grarr the Mightyeena as Yoshiki Kishinuma<strong>  
><strong>Hunter the Umbreon as Yuka Mochida<strong>  
><strong>Ivee the Snivy as Seiko Shinohara<strong>  
><strong>Kage the Houndoom as Mayu Suzumoto<strong>  
><strong>Tero the Charizard as Sakutaro Morishige<strong>  
><strong>Riven the Lopunny as Yui Shishido<strong>  
><strong>Flighty the Pidgeotto as Naho Saenoki<strong>  
><strong>Foxy the Braixen as Yuuya Kizami<strong>  
><strong>Drake the Mudkip as Ryou Yoshizawa<br>Len the Furret as Tokiko Tsuji  
>Rin the Furret as Yuki Kanno<strong>

**So, basically, EVERYONE'S IN THIS ONE! Wait, let me count. Only Glissando the Roserade isn't participating. WELL THEN, THIS SHALL BE INTERESTIN'! Let's get on with the story. Oh, and to any flamers - *stares at the one with bad grammar from the FNAF one accusingly* - Things WILL, I repeat, THEY WILL BE DIFFERENT, NO MATTER WHAT I DO! I will be trying to keep everything mostly the same, except skipping over a few things that wouldn't make sense with the characters I put together. DIVING INTO TERRIFYING GAMES SO YOU CAN READ FANFICTIONS, THAT'S WHAT I'LL DO FOR YOU!  
><strong>

**By the way, I should warn you about spoilers, like the fate of some of the unfortunate characters. _SPOILER__ ALERT!_**

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><p>Nightshade sat back in her chair, scowling at the whirring machine that had sent her and Ed to Five Nights at Freddy's about two weeks before. It had broken down, leaving her to fix it on her own, nobody else knowing how the heck to do repairs. She turned it around one more time, rubbing her eyes in exasperation. Slaving away at a machine all night wasn't her idea of a good time, but finally, she decided it was good enough. Nightshade wanted desperately to sleep, but the glowing eyes of Freddy Fazbear chasing after her still haunted her frequent dreams. Getting up, she went to her computer, and turned it on.<p>

She knew Hunter had been using it for something last night, but she didn't care enough to tell him to stop. Now she knew what he had been playing. "Corpse Party." Nightshade muttered, struggling to form the words after a day of silence, and was suddenly fully awake. She bolted outside, a grin spread on her face. Soon, everyone in her part of The Pack had been called, and they looked up confused at Nightshade, standing on the table.

"Alright, everyone! I got a challenge for you all!" Nightshade lifted the machine up over her head, and Ed shrank back. "We're going into CORPSE PARTY!" A shudder seemed to run through the crowd of fourteen. "Don't worry, one of you can sit out." A few hands and paws shot up, but Nightshade laughed. "Oh, no, you don't get to pick!"

"OH COME ON!" Somemon yelled from the back of the crowd.

"That somebody who's sitting out is... GLISSANDO!" Nightshade yelled out, and a Roserade pushed through the lines of the mini-crowd and ran away. "Corpse Party isn't THAT bad, sheesh." Nightshade yawned. "Okay everymon, you who are left are all assigned roles as the main characters, and ghosts! You'll all find out who you are once you're in. And fine, I'll allow you guys to bring water and such, I don't want to REALLY, ACTUALLY kill you. Besides, the game will become real life, minus the deaths and all pain felt won't actually hurt you."

Hunter cried out, "But why Corpse Party?! Why not something nice and happy like, oh, I don't know... The Walking Dead?" He got a few looks. "What? Zombies aren't scary, and a zombie apocalypse sounds cool!"

"Good idea, Hunter, we do Slenderman, then the Walking Dead! Like it or not, all of you, you're going into the game!" Nightshade exclaimed, and, with everyone staring, she flicked the switch on the machine, and it whirred to life. "CORPSE PARTY TIME!"

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><p>Zahri blinked, confused for a moment as she stared at a flickering candle. What was she doing? Nightshade rolled her eyes, scowling, and she opened up an SAO-type menu, tapped a few things in, and in a moment, it was clear to all of them. When Zahri didn't speak, Nightshade sighed, and decided to give them some instructions. "Okay, just like in the game, we are characters. Zahri, you are Ayumi, and are currently telling us scary stories. Afterwards, you will tell us about the Sachiko Ever After Charm, after which, there will be an earthquake, and we will fall into a pit and wake up, mostly separately, in Heavenly Host Middle School. The goal is to try and escape the school. Just play the roles of your characters, and everything will work out. Quick questions?"<p>

Tero raised a hand. "What if we die? Like, my character is supposed to die."

"Oh, you WILL feel every bit of pain from it, if I may repeat meself!." Nightshade said, and Ed inched away from her. "Don't worry, it won't actually hurt you... All the others meant to play the roles of students trapped in the school are already in there, waiting around, by the way! Outside of the game. If you do meet an unpleasant fate, you will be given the choice of becoming a spectator, and will be given the appearance of one of the friendly spirits if you do spectate, or you can just get zapped out of the game. Now, on with the game!"

Zahri suddenly felt everymon's eyes pinned on her, and she nervously started up the tale of a teacher who used to teach at where they sat, one of the classrooms of Kisaragi Academy. "It was a rainy evening after school. Just like this one... Running down the stairs, the kindly teacher lost her footing. she tumbled, and she fell... And she died." Zahri grew in confidence, following all the lines Ayumi said at the start of Corpse Party perfectly. "... You've all heard the stories, no? Before Kisaragi Academy was built here, there was another school on this property."

"Heavenly Host Elementary School, it was called. Such a horrible thing to happen. The principal was completely devastated." Zahri looked at Nightshade, who nodded in approval of how well she was getting this. "He cared for the school almost as if it were his own child, you see. But one thing led to another after the incident... And ultimately, a decision was reached. The school was to be shut down. The principal was so stricken with grief over losing his precious child that on the day of its closure..." Her stomach flipped. She hated violent, gory things. "... He climbed up to its roof and threw himself to his death. Or so the story goes..."

Ed shrank back from the window with a small gasp, and Zahri continued. "People thought Heavenly Host was cursed, you see. This was just the latest of many deaths to occur there. That's why it was torn down... However. They say the teacher who fell down the stairs still has no idea she's dead, even to this very day... And on rainy evenings like this, after our school day's come to an end... Some claim she roams these darkened hallways... _Still believing them to be her own... _In fact..."

She narrowed her eyes, "It's almost time for her to make her rounds! Just after seven o' clock... That's when she appears, always accompanied by a sudden blackout that leaves the entire building dark as night... 'Knock knock', you'll hear from the blackness, followed by the sound of the classroom door slowly sliding open... As her pale white face cuts through the stillness, her soft voice always echoes the same question: '_Is anyone still here?_' And then..."

Thunder cracked through the room, and the lights went out. "AGH!" Ed cried out. A sudden thought went through his head. _I was given the role of the chicken. _

Every one of the girls screamed, but only Nightshade couldn't do it without a straight face. _Only challenged by the girls. Of course. THANKS, GAME! _"It's a blackout!" he said, almost doing a faceplant.

"Ed! Pull yourself together, don't scare us like that!" Nightshade said, walking over to him.

"But it was scary!" he said, scowling.

"I- I don't like this... This shouldn't be happening." Zahri muttered.

Grarr laughed, "Not bad, Zahri! You had me going there for a minute."

Zahri growled at him. They might be friends outside of the game, but they weren't THAT close. "It wasn't me, I've been standing right here the whole time! This is a real blackout!"

Noises came from somewhere down the hall, and Kage stammered, "Does... Does anyone else hear that?!"

Tero stood. "It sounds like its coming from the music room..." Footsteps sounded closer and closer to where they all were gathered.

"No way..."

Ed tried to regain his composure and stood up. "I- I told you it was a bad idea to stay here this late and tell ghost stories!" Grarr smiled, staring at him.

"Hey, Ed... Aren't you gonna get the door?"

"What?!" He had to deal with being the chicken until they fell into Heavenly Host. Grarr came up to him.

"The girls are all trembling in fear. Doesn't it just break your heart to see them like that?" He said, his grin widening. He knew Ed didn't like this. _Nightshade, trembling in fear? I'd like to see that!_

"So, why don't _you _get the door?!"

"Well... It doesn't break _my _heart..."

Ed looked over Grarr, scowling. "... That's cold, man." He walked over to the door, and just as he was about to open it...

"Is anyone still here...?" A certain someone murmured. "_Go home, children..._" The door was slammed open, almost in time with a bang of thunder.

Ed fell back with a yell, and Riven the Lopunny walked into the classroom, smiling. "Did I scare you?" she laughed.

"Riven?!" Ed sat up, scowling.

Zahri smiled as Riven turned on the lights. "Heya, Teach!" They shared a high-five the best a rabbit and a dinosaur could. "I'd call that a success!"

"We've been had!" Nightshade and Kage laughed.

"You're timing? Perfect." Zahri said, turning back to the others.

"I wasn't a student here too long ago myself! When it comes to the 'Seven Wonders of Kisaragi High', I'm pretty well-versed!" Riven said.

Grarr laughed, Ed still recovering from his fall. "Heh, Ed..."

Kage came up to Ed, beaming. "I thought Tero's reaction was priceless, but yours was on a whole different level, Ed!"

Again, Ed was embarrassed. _Drag through it, soon they'll be looking to me for help! _he thought, as Tero came up to him. "It was pretty impressive. I couldn't hope to compete with that."

"Ed's always got the best reactions. I love it when my scares are so effective."

"Sorry, but I can't help but deny that your reactions are the best." Riven said after Zahri. Nightshade was impressed. They were getting this well.

"Ugh..." Ed grumbled.

"All pranking aside, though, I ran into a rather adorable individual in the hall who's come to see you." Riven said, and that certain someone smiled behind the open door, still in the hallway. "Come on in, he's right in here." Hunter slowly came in. In his head too, he was raging. He had to play a girl's role because of Rin and Len's age differences, which played a role. He had recently finished the game, and another thought came to mind, making him scowl for a moment. He was YUKA. Let me underline that, YUKA.

"Hello everybody..." Hunter said.

"Hunter, what are you doing here?"

"Big brother!" At least this meant he would be thought of as adorable at the drop of a hat, no questions asked. Hunter ran forward to hug Ed.

"Seems Ed forgot his umbrella this morning, so Hunter here has come all this way to deliver it." Riven said.

Gently pushing Hunter away, Ed said a little nervously, "Oh yeah, I guess I did. Sorry about that, Hunter, thanks."

"Is she from junior high?" Zahri asked.

"Nice to meet you! Ed's always like this." Being a character in a video game also meant he could drop insulting hints about his brother without him being able to do anything about it. When Ed gave him a look, he stammered, "Always really kind, I mean!" He forgot that Ed would give him... Trouble, to say the least after they were done here.

After a few d'aww!'s from some of the girls, Nightshade spoke up. "I had no idea you had a little brother, Ed." 'Course she knew. This was kind of like LARPing, now that she thought about it.

"Really, I never told you." Nightshade shook her head.

"You must really love your big brother, don't you?" Grarr was kind for once in the game. Well, he was supposed to be Yoshiki, who could be a jerk...

Ivee sat up on a desk, smiling at Nightshade. "Hey Nighty... Looks like you've got a rival, huh?"

"Ah... I don't know what you're talking about." Nightshade came up to Ivee and grabbed her... Only slightly gently, maintaining a smile. "I swear, that mouth of yours says the craziest things!"

Riven spoke up. "All right everyone! It's past seven, isn't it time you all get ready to head home?" Kage sighed.

"Aw, do we have to? Shouldn't we clean up all the red bean café stuff first? It'd be a shame to leave so soon!" Zahri complained.

"Yeah, with the classroom like this, it almost seems like we could hold another culture festival tomorrow." Grarr noted, looking around.

Riven's expression hardened a little. "Isn't that what you were supposed to be doing here in the first place? You promised me that the room would be ready to go by the time I got here." Zahri groaned, and a smile came back on Riven's face. "Heh, well, it's getting late. How about you leave it for now, and come in early tomorrow?"

"... Okay." Zahri said, and Riven walked over to Kage.

"Kage, I know how hard it is to say goodbye... But, I wish you the best of luck at your new school. I know you'll do just fine."

"... Thanks..." Kage muttered.

"It won't be the same without you, Kage..." Ivee said.

"I know you, Kage. You'll make new friends in no time flat, I'm sure of it!" Zahri tried to reassure her. Of course, this was just a play of sorts, and the words meant nothing, like what Nightshade next said.

"And, it's not like you're moving that far away. Come winter break, we'll all make sure we come visit."

"Yeah, don't worry. We'll see you again real soon. We're friends forever, after all!" Zahri said. Kage held back fake tears.

Hunter looked up at Ed. "Hey, is she transferring to a new school or something?" He was impatient to move it along, and was sure the ones waiting in Heavenly Host felt the same.

"Yeah, today's culture festival was her last day." Ed whispered back.

"Thank you so much, all of you. I'm so grateful to have you as friends... You all have a special place in my heart, and you always will." Kage muttered.

"Take care, Kage..." Ivee was starting to break down. Nightshade looked down at her. Man, was she a good actor. "I'll always be watching over you from above!" And, that was sort of creepy! "My spirit will guard your path!"

"You're not dead, you know..." Nightshade muttered.

"Kage? Come on, let's see that smile of yours." Tero tried to cheer her up, taking out his phone... Wait. PHONE OUT OF NOWHERE! Whatever.

"Okay, but how about we get everyone in the shot?" Everyone assembled quickly.

"Ed? Your friends are really great, you know?" Hunter said, and Ed smiled.

"They sure are." Tero took the shot, and Ivee immediately ran up to him, begging to see it.

"Send it to my phone, will you?" Nightshade said, pulling Ivee away from Tero.

Zahri spoke up. "Hey... Teach, before we head back, there's something I'd like to do with everyone." Another crack of thunder. "Since we're losing one of our own, do you mind if we try it? It's called 'Sachiko Ever After'."

"Who's Sachiko?" Nightshade asked. "And, what's with the paper doll? Is this another one of your occult things?"

"Eh, kind of. This is... It's a charm that I found on the internet. If we do it right, then all of us will be friends forever. That's the gist of it!"

"Oh, it's a charm?" Kage stepped into the conversation again.

"Yeah, a mystical charm!"

"Awesome! I totally wanna do it!" Kage said.

"Is everybody okay with this?" Riven asked. Everyone said yes in their own sort of way some how.

Zahri set down the paper doll. "Alright, we're good to go! Everyone, gather in a circle around this paper Sachiko doll." Everyone did as such. "Then, repeat 'Sachiko we beg of you'... Seven... Eight, nine! Yeah, repeat it nine times. Don't worry if you flub it a little, just make sure you don't stop saying it. You gotta say it one time for every person present. No more, no less, or it won't work."

"And, what happens if it fails?" Ed asked. Everyone knew already though.

"This whole paper doll thing seems a little sketchy to me..." Grarr muttered.

"Failure isn't an option, just give it all you got." Zahri said.

"Ah... Uh, okay..." Ed sounded doubtful. Everyone was a great actor.

"All right, let's get started! Everybody remember the charm? 'Sachiko we beg of you', nine times. Ready? Begin!" Zahri fell silent, as did the others. "... Everybody said it nine times?"

"Yeah." Ed said, and Grarr sighed.

"If we don't get on with it, I think I'll wind up saying it again."

"Okay, now everyone, grab the paper doll and grab hold of it, anywhere you can." Easier said than done, Tero being about the only one with actual hands.

"I think I got it... Like this?" Riven asked.

"Exactly, now, just hold on really tightly. Dig your nails into it if you have to, just don't let go. We're going to pull on it until it rips apart into nine pieces, okay? One the count of three. One... Two... Three!" The paper split into nine pieces, and another crash of thunder rocked the school.

"GYACK!" Ed cried out, falling backwards, startled once more.

"Nicely done, everyone! Just keep that scrap of paper safe, okay? Put it in your student ID holder, your wallet... Basically, anywhere it won't get lost."

"So the scrap has some sort of meaning to it then?" Grarr asked.

"Yep, as long as we all have that little piece of Sachiko with us, we'll always be connected with one another as friends. That's the purpose of the charm."

"Thanks, Zahri." Kage said.

"Consider it as a promise that we'll definitely hang out again!" Riven stepped up to the front of the classroom.

"I hate to say it, but its time we all get packed up and head home." Riven said, and everyone nodded agreement. The school shuddered.

"What was that? An earthquake!?" Ed asked, looking around. The school shook, faster and faster.

"What the hell?! This is gigantic!" Grarr gasped, trying to keep his footing, the girls crying out in fear. The lights shattered with the force of the earthquake, and Riven called out an order.

"Everyone, stay calm! Get under your desks until it passes!" A light crashed down beside Kage, making her yelp in fear. "Under the desks, now!"

A rift opened up in the floor, the ground creaking in what seemed like agony. "W- What the?!"

"This can't be happening!" Zahri cried out.

"I-is this for real?!" Grarr gasped, the floor opening up wider and wider.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

And they all fell, Ed holding onto Hunter, Ivee and Nightshade holding each other, Riven, Grarr, and Zahri trying to hold each other's hands and paws, and Tero and Kage falling alone. Into darkness. Only one sound made it through to them, engulfed in the blackness of that abyss.

"Welcome to Heavenly Host..."

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><p><strong>AN: SO MUCH DIALOUGE! I'll be doing these chapters in the pacing of Pewdiepie's Corpse Party playthroughs, just to make it easier for me, and to get you guys longer chapters. Sorry this was mostly dialogue, as what happened in Animatronics, OC's, and Security Cameras. The next chapter should pick up the pace a little more.<strong>


	2. Well, There's Your Problem!

**AN: Welp. My hand hurts. Carpal tunnel syndrome? I SHALL WRITE ON ANYWAYS!  
>Hopefully there's not as much dialogue in this one... I'll try my best.<br>**

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><p>"Ouch!" Nightshade groaned. "... Oh, ow... My leg..." She realized she was probably talking to herself, but continued anyways, slowly getting up. "I can move it, so I guess it's just a sprain..." Looking up, she noticed something. "... Huh? Where... I'm not at home, am I..." Her ears flattened against her head. "It can't be..." Floorboards creaked as she inspected her surroundings best she could. "It's so dark... I can barely see a thing... Is this the school?" The lights flickered on suddenly. "W-wha?" Holes pitted the wooden floor, and desks and chairs lay strewn about the room. "What's going on?! Where the hell is this place?"<p>

She padded around, looking at everything, until she noticed something from across the broken room. "Ivee?" It was true. The Snivy lay on the other side of the room, not moving. "Ivee! Ivee! This isn't good!" She walked around a bit more, and noticed a door. Nightshade decided quickly to head out of it, and ran down the hallway, tripping over a raised plank. "Ouch... That really hurt..." She got up again. "My ankle's in pretty bad shape..." She was about to exit the hallway through another door, when she noticed a scrap of paper lying on the ground. Picking it up carefully, she read it. "Heavenly Post, Third Student Reported Missing... The young students of Heavenly Host something School seem to be disappearing, third student has disappeared. Classmates testify... Student on her way home... Got separated from her friends... Hasn't been seen since..." She skimmed over it.

"Wait... Heavenly Post...? Am I in...?" Shaking her head, she left the paper and went through the other door. "Ivee?" She ran over to her friend, and bent over her. "Come on Ivee, wake up!"

"Nng... Huh... Nightshade, what's up?" Ivee slowly sat up, holding her head.

"Don't you 'what's up' me! I thought you were dead!" Nightshade sighed, relieved.

"Hmm? Uh... Where... Where are we?" She seemed fully awake now. "What's going on?!"

"That's what I want to know." Nightshade straightened up, and helped Ivee to stand. Ivee immediately went over to a window, and pulled on it while Nightshade inspected the floor, desks, and cabinets.

"Nngh... GAH!" Ivee fell backward from the window, and sighed. "It isn't budging... These windows are sealed up tight! Also, to make matters worse, it's pitch black out there, I can't make heads or tails of what I'm seeing!"

"... What the heck is going on..." Nightshade muttered.

"Well... Uh... This is clearly a school building of sorts..." Ivee said as Nightshade walked over to her.

"But don't the desks seem unusually small to you though? ... Like an elementary school..." It suddenly pieced together. No longer was the game an act. They were in, and Nightshade had wiped most of the information on the game from the others.

"... An... An elementary school?" Ivee stammered.

"No, it can't be..." Nightshade whispered, and Ivee walked over to a poster stamped on a wall near the door. Ivee read it for a moment, and she stepped back in clear shock. "What is it?"

"The printout on the wall. It says, 'Heavenly Host Elementary - Notice to All Faculty and Students'."

"Heavenly... Host?" Nightshade asked. "Isn't that... The school that preceded Kisaragi Academy? The one that got torn down?"

"Arceus, what's happening?!" Ivee cried out. "Where the heck are we?! And, where are our friends?! And Riven?!"

"C-calm down Ivee, don't get so worked up!" Nightshade walked over to her friend, and lay a reassuring paw on her shoulder.

"... Sorry." Ivee muttered. And they stood there. Shaking, scared. The silence was overwhelming.

"... Hey. I don't have the slightest idea of what's going on... But how about we try finding a way out of here?"

"A way out?"

"We can't just stand here, we need to do something... Besides, I don't want to be in here any longer than I have to..."

"But, the windows. They're all sealed shut." Ivee walked back to the windows. "I don't mean that they're stuck, or locked, because they're not. It's kind of like they're just for decorations... I don't think they can open! Is it even possible to leave?"

"I'm not sure, but I think there might be an entranceway, or an emergency exit... Or something. There's gotta be some way of getting outside..." Ivee walked back to Nightshade.

"... You're right, and it's a lot better than just standing here. I feel like I'm going to go all crazy-like in here if we keep this up."

"Okay then! First step... Is to leave this room. We gotta keep our spirits up!" Nightshade walked up to the door. "... After all, it's probably not just the two of us in here... The others have to be around somewhere, right?"

"Yeah, and if we can reunite with them, we'll be able to get out easier, all of us!"

"That's the spirit, Ivee!"

"Let's go, Nightshade."

"Right!" And with that, Nightshade started to lead the way out of the room. A crack split the air, and an earthquake rocked Heavenly Host Elementary School. "ACK!" They both screamed, falling on the floor. "Another earthquake?!"

"Noooo!" And for a few more, terrifying seconds the school shuddered. "... Is it over?"

"Phew..."

"I've had enough..." Ivee complained.

"... Let's just get out of this room, okay?" Nightshade led Ivee out of the classroom and into the hallway. "Wait... What?"

"What's wrong?"

"This hallway looks totally different than it did before..."

"Maybe the earthquake changed it? Made more of the floor collapse?"

"Y-yeah... Maybe..." They walked on, the floorboards groaning despite their light weight. A gap opened up in the floor before them, and they could try jumping across. "Risk it?"

"Well, I kind of have these..." Ivee tried to summon her vines. "What the?"

"I disabled moves unless you really need them!" Nightshade said, and received a glare from Ivee. "What? I did find a plank that we could lay across the gap earlier. We should go back and get that." The two Pokémon turned back and walked across the changed hall, and Ivee noticed a bucket.

"What the heck is this? Pee or something?"

"Gross! Don't say that..." Nightshade screwed up her face. Nightshade led Ivee into the classroom through the other door, and she picked up the plank. "Splinter filled, and perfect for crossing that gap." She noted, picking something from her paw.

"Uh... Hey Nightshade?" Ivee asked.

"Hm?"

"Is there something wrong with your leg?"

"Oh yeah... I was so freaked out, I forgot all about it. I think I sprained my ankle when I fell."

"That's not good, will you be okay?" Nightshade nodded, but Ivee persisted as they walked back out again. "Yeah, but you shouldn't push yourself. Here, lean on my shoulder, okay? Easer said than done when Ivee was quite a bit shorter than Nightshade.

"Okay, thanks." They walked back up the hall, and Nightshade lay the plank across the gap. Nightshade sprang across it lightly, despite her leg, and Ivee followed. There were two places to go now. Up what looked like a staircase, or into an even more trashy looking classroom. "Stairs." Nightshade said, and Ivee steered her up it.

"... Say something, Ivee?"

"What? No."

"So... It wasn't you?" Nightshade looked around, and noticed a pile of chairs stacked at the end of the second flight of stairs. "Looks like we'll have to go back down..." Nightshade sighed. "Creepy classroom then." Nightshade stopped Ivee from helping her, and she walked down the stairs, determined not to limp.

"Nightshade, how did you even make a machine for this?"

"Crafstmon's secrets, dude."

"I thought as much." They entered the disheveled room, which looked worse than the one they had fell into.

"Wait..." Nightshade gasped, and she stepped back, trembling. "Is that... Is that a skeleton!?" Nightshade may like writing about dead, gruesome things, but put one in front of her, and she freaks out. "AAH!"

"Wh-what!?" Ivee moved a little closer to the remains. "EEEK!" She screamed, falling backwards, a little too close to a pit. "Why is there a dead person here?!"

"W-wait, let me look at them more closely. They could be fake." Nightshade edged up nervously to the corpse, Ivee following carefully. "... Th-They really are somebody's bones..."

"Noooo!" Ivee cried out, running away from it.

"Ivee!" Nightshade grabbed her arm before she ran into the dark pit.

"_You two..._" A voice murmured from next to the bones. A blue light flickered to life.

"Eep!"

"_You two are new victims, are you not?_" It wavered as it spoke.

"A g-ghost!" Ivee gasped.

"Who are you?!"

"_I was brought here against my will... And confined... Just like you..._"

"... Confined? Do you mean that there's no way out?"

"_I'm afraid not. This school exists in a reality all its own, cut off from the world you know._"

"So why have we been brought here..." Nightshade asked, her hopes smashed.

"_'They' brought you. They're constantly bringing new victims into this school. More and more... All the time... Sinless innocents, one after another... This is a cursed, multidimensional nexus, multiple planes of existence, all piled on top of one another... Created by powerful, vengeful spirits. 'Closed space'... Or perhaps... 'closed spaces'..._"

"W-what?!"

"_You, and we as well, are the unlucky victims of an inescapable abduction._"

"Closed... Spaces?"

"_Indeed._ _And it seems you two are not the only ones to have been brought here. I'm sensing numerous others..."_

"What? Does that mean that everybody else is here too?"

"_I don't know the exact number, but I do know that others were pulled into these spaces at the same time as you two. They are definitely in this school."_

"Oh my Arceus, that's such good new! Nighty, they're here! We're not alone!" Ivee laughed for the first time they had gotten here.

"_However... You cannot meet them._"

"What? Why?!"

"_They're definitely in this school. But the space they occupy differs from the space we occupy. If you want to see your friends, you must find some means of entering their space, or bringing them into this space. Even then, escape is impossible, but at least you'll be able to die together."_

"Is... Is there no way out of here then?" Ivee asked.

"You said we were brought here by vengeful spirits, right? Who are they? And why have they taken us?"

"_I don't know... Neither the motives of our captors, nor a means of escaping this hell... All I know is that with some effort, you can at least live out your days together, in the same space. And that alone is a fate worth fighting for. Two heads are better than one, your chances, and your opportunities are so much greater when working together. Do whatever you can to find a way out of here. Don't end up like us._"

Nightshade and Ivee swapped a few glances, and the door behind them creaked open. Suddenly, the blue spirit cried out in fear, "No!" And flickered out.

"Oh my Arceus!" Ivee cried out. A girl ghost in a ragged red dress sat hugging her knees from across the room. She stared at the two between drapes of black hair. "R-Run! We gotta get out of here, NOW!" Nightshade took one more look at the ghost, noticed that the blackboard had streaks of chalk on it, forming pictures, and bolted to the door they had come in through.

Nightshade skidded to a halt, Ivee crashing into her, and they finally allowed themselves a moment to breath. "A-are you all right, Ivee?" Nightshade spluttered.

"Yeah, I think so... But what the hell was that?! A child spirit?"

"It did kind of glow... I never believed in ghosts before. Well, excluding the type. Is this really happening?"

"There were definitely ghosts in there, first time I've seen something like that!"

"So you saw it too, right?" Nightshade asked.

"Yeah, and we were talking to it..."

"I don't understand any of this, except that there's... No easy way out. Like it or not, it seems we're stuck here."

Ivee helped Nightshade to stand. "It'll be okay. We just... You know, march on with our heads held high, and find a way out! ... Or something."

"I guess..." With that, Nightshade went back to the trashy classroom, and stuck her head in through the doorway. "She's not there." Ivee walked past Nighty and looked at the blackboard.

"I can't make heads or tails of that. What about you?"

"I don't know, but... It's just a picture, right?" Nightshade noticed a little candle flickering right next to a hole in the floor. "Hey, was this here before?"

"Don't think so... But doesn't it look familiar?"

"Odd. Let's keep going." Nightshade said, and kneeling in front of it instead of going out the door like Ivee, she opened up the SAO type menu, and saved.

"Nightshade!" Ivee called from outside, and the Fennekin ran after her. Ivee was a ways down the hall, reading a bloodied note on the wall. "Wow. That's dark."

"What? Oh..." Nightshade straightened up. "This must be a main hall, what do you think?"

"Probably... But I smell something terrible. And I can hear flies!"

"I'm going to see what it is." Nightshade padded down the hall, and the walls narrowed. Ivee followed cautiously. Ivee rounded a wall, and recoiled.

"Well... There's the problem."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Big on dialogue again, sorry about that. Hope you don't mind too much! But I'll try to pick up the pace on these chapters. You guys deserve the best, so I'm doing ALL the research! See you in the next chapter.<strong>


	3. KEEP YO TAIL ON THE BED, GURL!

**AN: Sorry for the wait! *durp***

**No buttering up the you-know-what in this fanfiction, by the way.**

* * *

><p>"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The scream split the air, and a certain Fennekin tripped trying to get away from the splatter of assorted body parts and blood.<p>

"... That's fresh." Ivee commented.

"DON'T MAKE IT WORSE!" Nightshade spluttered, backing out into the main hallway. "It's horrifying..."

"Like someone was thrown from the other side of the hall at superpokemon speed or something." This wasn't the right time to crack a joke, but Ivee did it anyways. "Like... SANIC FAST!" Insert sunglasses here.

"Arceus, you're terrible..."

"And then they splattered everywhere..." Nightshade returned, and they stood in front of the mess. Ivee walked a bit closer to it. "Ugh, it smells... Meaty. Makes it worse with the fact that I'm a grass type." Nightshade swallowed hard, turning away from it. "S-sorry Nightshade! Are you okay?"

"Fine enough, I suppose..." she muttered. "Let's just get away from this... Stuff." Ivee nodded, and they walked away down the hall. A doorway yawned open before them, and Ivee did the honors of going first down a creaking set of stairs, followed quickly by Nightshade, who had absolutely no intention of being left alone here. "Ew, more dead bodies... Skeletons are so gross.."

"I'm going to take its Student ID!"

"Why?"

"No idea."

"Fair enough."

Ivee picked it up, and they walked past a hole in the ground. Nightshade walked on and Ivee stopped to read a slip of paper tacked to the wall. She read it out aloud. "'I told everyone that I'd go with them, so why have I been left behind? It hurts... It hurts so much.' Hm. Looks like there's really a lot of different people who've been brought here..."'

"It'll work out for us though, I'm sure of it... Ehehe... Ahaha..."

"..." Ivee caught up to Nightshade. "What's with the holes in the ground?"

"I could insert a joke in here, but I won't. Earthquakes, man." Nightshade led Ivee up another hallway. A blue light flickered to the side of the hallway. "Hey look, one of those ghost things!"

It spoke to them immediately. "_If you wish to leave this place... You must take heed of the messages left behind by the many other victims who've died here. Many victims have left their thoughts, or even their dying messages on the scraps of paper that litter these walls... It hurts... So much..._"

Without saying anything else, it flickered away, and with a confused look at Ivee, Nightshade came to a cross-section of two other halls. "So many halls, who built this place! Oh yeah, I already know, PFFFFFT."

"Cheater." Ivee scowled, and headed left. "Hm... This door." Ivee pulled on it. "Well, Classroom 4-A is another decoration..."

"What's up with these tags and scraps of paper, Ivee?" Nightshade asked, looking at a large door.

"I heard they're thingies to keep out curses and ghosts and stuff. It says that it's... The basement... Well, that makes sense, why that's nailed up! That thing's not opening anytime soon." Ivee looked at the door.

"Ewewewewewwww... Another skeleton." Nightshade looked across another pit, scowling.

"ID TAAAAAAG!" Ivee ran forward and snatched it from the remains of the dead student's uniform. "Oh look, another note." Nightshade edged around some furniture that had been smashed to pieces to pick it up. "This place looks like a dead end, after you read that, we're going to the right path."

"Uh... Okay, it says, 'My head is splitting. It's unbearable. I can't take it... I can't take it, I can't take it! When we found Yuzuha's body, I saw a black shadow. But I didn't tell anyone about it... And now, It's killed them all. I'm so sorry, everyone... I'm so so-' The rest is covered in blood... Wait... Gross!" She dropped the bloodstained paper.

"Oh come on, Nighty..." Ivee grabbed Nightshade's paw and dragged her back through the hallways, and into the right path. Ivee hauled her through a doorway. "Okay, see?"

"Ooooh, something shiny!" Nightshade said, and jumped the rift in the ground. "Aw. It moved."

"Nightshade, why did you jump that?! HOW DID YOU JUMP THAT?! Ooh, ID Tag." Ivee jumped it too. "That answers my problem." Ivee walked over to a skeleton slumped over in its chair. "Oh, a paper... It says, 'You're an idiot, Koito. If you don't believe with all your heart, then we'll never get rescued. I thought we were friends!'"

"That one has a big hole in her head... That's gross... She died of a blow to the head..." Nightshade scowled, getting up from all-fours.

"Where did that thing move?" Ivee asked, and Nightshade jumped over the hole again, pouncing on it. It reappeared on the other side of the hole. "You stay there..." Ivee walked over cautiously to the item, and picked it up. "Its a key."

"To the infirmary, as I already know!" Nightshade said, and ran out of the room to rejoin Ivee.

"Stop playing the OP one, Nighty."

"Teamwork, bro!" She ran out of the room, Ivee following. "Okay, infirmary, where to?"

"Bad memory, or are you just saying that?"

"Saying it."

"Okay... Then... The infirmary was upstairs, I think."

"Actually there was a door over... There." Nightshade pulled Ivee over to it. "See? Infirmary."

"Uh... Thanks?" Ivee muttered, and put the key in the hole. *cough*Insertdirtyjokehere*cough*. She opened the door up, and Nightshade flew in before her. Nightshade knelt down at a candle, and Ivee tried to ignore the SAO save screen, and looked at an open cabinet. "Why do they need this much medicine?"

"Mystery to me. Try the sink, will you?"

Nightshade got up, and inspected the medicine as well. Ivee turned the handle, and scowled. "Nothing. I didn't realize how thirsty I am until now..."

"Look at this heater... Ooh, a box of matches." Nightshade picked up the box.

"Gross, the organs in this drawing of the human body are painted over with real blood..." Ivee muttered, looking at the wall and desk. "Well, that's all that seems to be here... Let's go."

"Agreed." Nightshade and Ivee left the infirmary, and walked back to the stairs.

"Hey, is that another loose board?"

"Grab that. We'll probably need it. And now, I shall lead you to where we WILL be using that." Nightshade ran back up the hall, dodging the splatter. "Right... Here!"

"You want us to go into that dark room over that gap."

"Yeah. We've done it a few times now."

"Okay... After you..." She placed the board down. Nightshade walked lightly over the plank, and helped Ivee over. "It's not a room, it's a staircase!"

"Same difference." Nightshade leaped up the stairs, Ivee doing a facepalm. Unbeknownst to them, a Mudkip plodded behind them, glowing in the eerie light of spirits. "Oh, look, dead body. Are you invincible to how scary they are, Ivee?"

"Maybe, or you're just a chicken." Ivee interrupted Nightshade's hiss of fury, and said, "Pick up the note, will you?"

"It says, 'Arceus will surely save me...' Well, Arceus didn't help much, now did he... Or she." Nightshade muttered. "Stop fiddling around with those things..."

"ID's are the collectibles. I want all of them." Ivee said, and the two walked down the hall.

"Lavatories? What's that?" Nightshade asked.

"A bathroom."

"Oh. Gross much?" Nightshade scowled, but walked into the boy's bathroom. "Open the stalls, there could be something useful in there."

"In a bathroom? Ew... Fine." Ivee opened the last stall, nearest to the wall, and she sprung backwards.

"SHUT THE ARCEUSDAMNED DOOR!" Came the scream, and the door slammed shut.

"What the hell was that?!"

"That was either a real voice, or a hallucination. I think its a hallucination, you're crazy!"

"This isn't the place to be cracking jokes!" They quickly left, and neared the girl's bathroom. "What's that smell?"

"It better not be another splatter..." The Fennekin sighed. "Oh, it's just a bucket o' meat."

"Gross! How can you stand that, and not dead bodies?!"

"Because you can't see what the living thing may have looked like."

"True." They went into the girl's bathroom, and checked the stalls again. "Hey... This one won't open! All of them except this one..."

Nightshade decided not to spoil anything for Ivee, who had the unfortunate fate of being Seiko. They left the hallway that the bathrooms were in, and Ivee stopped. her. "Hey, Nightshade?"

"What. Oh, this line. Shut up, don't say it, take the freaking medicine." Nightshade sighed.

"Thanks, I'm gonna go-"

"Please don't say it."

"I don't want to say it."

"Then don't! Just go!"

Ivee walked off. "Yaaay!"

"Do you have any shame at all?" Nightshade muttered, waiting for her friend. Impatiently, she looked out over the staircase, and hear someone familiar crying.

"Big broootheeer!" Hunter cried.

"Was that Hunter?" Nightshade wondered. She wanted to spring after the voice, but then again, she had to wait for Ivee... Safety in numbers... She padded to the girl's bathroom, trying to ignore the bucket of meat. "Ivee?"

"Hm?"

"Oh, just checking to make sure you're here! Who knows what could happen... In this place." Ivee opened a stall door, and Nightshade grimaced, looking at the splinters that were exploded over the entire surface of the wooden door.

"Sorry for the wait, Nighty!" Ivee rejoined her friend, but the Fennekin leaned past her to look at the stalls.

"No problem... But was that stall open the other time we were here? I thought that stall was locked when we were in here before, the one you came out of." Ivee turned to look, her tail slightly drooping.

"Was it? I didn't have any trouble getting in. You sure?"

"Oh whatever. Probably just some coincidence. Besides, we have bigger things to worry about than a bathroom stall." Nightshade exited the room. "I actually just heard Hunter's voice in the hallway. I think it was coming from downstairs."

"Then we better go find him." Ivee trundled down the stairs. "He doesn't like being away from E-"

"Oof!" Nightshade tripped over the rotting, raised planks of the stairs, and Ivee quickly caught her before she could tumble head-over-paws down the rest of the steps.

"Y-you okay Nightshade?" Ivee sat Nightshade up quickly. "That was a close one..."

"Ouch... My leg. Thanks for lending me a hand." Ivee helped Nightshade up, looking at her ankle.

"Seems like you sprained your ankle really badly. We should find you a place to rest." Ivee helped Nightshade walk down the stairs.

_I'm really starting to regret my putting in ACTUAL pain for this! _The proud Fennekin scowled. "I owe you one, Ivee..." She leaned on Ivee's shoulder.

"Oh, it's nothing, really. Don't worry about it." The two crossed the plank that spanned the void-like hole in the ground, and went down the hallway with the splatter in it. Speaking of the splatter... _Squelch! _"OH ARCEUS!" Ivee ran away from it, and Nightshade looked like she was about to throw up. "I think I stepped in it!"

"Okay, I'll let you use your moves for this!" Nightshade edged past it, cringing when she heard Ivee's next words.

"Eugh, these... These are definitely somemon's guts! And when I stepped on... Whatever part of their body I stepped on, it made a squishy sound!" It didn't make it better that Pokémon never wore shoes.

"T-that's way too much info, Ivee, you're gonna make me sick!" Ivee just lowered her head, let Nightshade lean on her shoulder, and they walked on, after Ivee flicked away whatever was on her foot with a vine. Wandering the school, they eventually came to the set of stairs that was blocked off with chairs. Hey, that rhymed-

A flicker of blue light caught Nightshade's attention. "Hey Ivee, we should probably go check that out."

"Yeah. Probably another spirit or something." And she was right. A spirit sparked fitfully on the second flight. It got straight to the point.

"_If you die in here, you'll feel the pain you felt at the moment of death forever... Oagh... Why- why did I have to die like that?!_" It fizzled out, and a key dropped out of the air where it had been. Nightshade picked it up, scowling.

"So we'll feel the pain of death forever?"

"Eheheh... Best not to think about that, huh?" Ivee laughed nervously, and they quickly left. "Just try random locked doors with that key, okay?" Nightshade nodded, and the next door they came to, she put the key in the lock. It turned.

"Speak of the Giratina..." Nightshade suddenly stepped back. "Eugh..."

"What's wrong, Nightshade?"

"I'm psychic, remember? It was kinda like... Like my heart skipped a beat when I turned the key... I have a bad feeling about this room Ivee!" Nevertheless, the Snivy pushed the door open.

"Oh, trust me, it'll be fine! It's a locked door, and you know what that means, right?" Nightshade sighed as Ivee continued on. "Booty!" _Why did I just say that?! _"Behind every locked door lies a treasure, waiting to be claimed, Nighty! Can't you hear it calling?"

"Aaaaahookaaaay..." Nightshade muttered, and Ivee led her friend into the room. "Eep! Another dead body..."

"Are those words in the floor?" Ivee bent down to read itl. "It says, 'Whatever you do, don't look at the newspaper.'"

"I... Reaaaally think we should just leave this room! Something just doesn't feel right..." Ivee opened her mouth to speak, but Nightshade interrupted her. "Trust me! I am psychic!"

"Okay, but I dunno... I'm really curious about that newspaper now. Can't we just take one little peek?" Before Nightshade could argue, Ivee looked at the torn scrap of it.

"Ivee, wasn't the message clear!?" Nightshade gasped, but Ivee simply waved her off.

"I'm reading it. 'Heavenly Post. Breaking news: Serial kidnapping ends in murder. The good name of Heavenly Host Elementary School has been stained in blood today as horrific details on the recent wave of disappearances are revealed. Over the past month, numerous children have gone missing within the town, and authorities quickly turned to kidnapping as the most likely explanation. Now investigators have located the whereabouts of these children, and their findings are far worse than anyone could've anticipated. The bodies of the... Absconded youths were discovered within the Heavenly Host Elementary School building on September 18th, 1973 at around 7:00 PM. Authorities further revealed that a male instructor from the school was found with them, alive but near-catatonic, holding a pair of bloodied scissors.'"

"Oh look, we have the same weapon choice... Minus my axe." Nightshade muttered, and Ivee shot her a glare.

"'Each of the corpses appeared to have had its tounge... Severed, and remove...' Something... 'mutilations far too' something something... 'to describe.' The rest of the page is torn."

"Awful..." The two stood there for a moment, looking at the paper, before a slam made them both jump.

"?! Nononononono!" Nightshade, despite her leg ran up to the now closed door. "It's... Like a decoration!" Even so, she put all her weight on the handle, jiggling it around... And the door gave way. The two pushed out of the room, swearing they heard sobbing.

"Oooh man, that scared the crap out of me, Nighty!" Nightshade sighed, and suddenly, Ivee gasped. "Hold up... Oh no! No, it's gone!"

"What is?"

"The paper doll scrap I got from Zahri!"

"The charm? Mine's in my student ID holder." Lucky she had that.

"Craaap... I put mine in my pocket. It must've fallen out somewhere... Now I'm sad..." Ivee sighed, and they walked on through the hallways.

"Hey, Ivee... Could we find that place to rest soon?"

"Oh yeah, sorry. I think I saw beds in the infirmary. Come on, we should get farther away from here." In silence, they padded through the hall, dodged the splatter, and headed into the infirmary.

"... I expected the beds to be a lot dustier." Nightshade sat down.

"They are surprisingly clean. That's good though! Now you can rest, Nightshade."

"Yeah, I think I'm going to lie down for a bit." Nightshade lay down, wincing slightly at her leg, and the protesting groan from the beds.

"I wonder if there's anything in here we could use to at least speed up your ankle's healing... Sit tight, I'm gonna take a look." Nightshade sighed again, and Ivee straightened up. "Ah, this will do nicely!" Ivee jumped back over. "I got me a makeshift splint and some bandages. That sprain's gonna be gone in no time! Now, hold still."

"Alrighty! How's that?" Ivee said, putting away the extra bandages.

"Feels better already. Thanks Ivee."

"Thanks much! I've sprained my ankle badly before too. I know just how you feel... I just wish I had some ice to put on it."

"No worries, you've done more than enough already... You're asleep already? Fair enough, I suppose."

Ivee straightened up, almost giving Nighty a heart attack. "Off to slumberland for me then! ... But hey... Nightshade?"

"Hm?"

"If we find Ed, do you know what you're going to do with him?"

Nightshade blushed. "W-what?"

"Well, y'know what they ssay! When two people are faced with... Difficult situations, shall we say, it often leads to lov-" Nightshade quickly grabbed her again like earlier.

"What your mouth says, I SWEAR!"

"Ahahahaha! Anyways, we should rest."

"Your nonsense talk is done?"

"Yea-"

"Big broooooother!" Came the cry again.

"Hunter? You hear that, Ivee?" Nightshade asked, sitting up.

"You stay here and rest, okay? I'm going to go look for Hunter. Be back in a jiffy."

"I... Don't think that's a good idea, in this place. I-I should go too."

"I insist. Don't worry Nightshade, I'll be fine! Just keep your tail on that bed, okay?"

"But..."

"Look, your ankle's all dressed and feeling better, right? Don't make it all for nothing!"

"Okay, fine..." Nightshade watched Ivee leave the room, and sighed. _Ivee__ wouldn't be fine._

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><p><strong>AN: Finally. That took... Three hours, I think! I don't like writing that long, but...<strong>

**I SHALL BE EPIC AND WRITE ON FOR MY FEW FANS!**

**Hookay, onto get a head start on the next chapter.**


	4. The Darkening

**AN: I just realized that the pacing of these chapters is TERRIBLE.  
>Oh well, hits-and-misses. Can't wait to get through this massive thing though. And I accidently switched up characters, but realized later on that them being switched wouldn't affect the story. At all. I'll try to write less dialogue, but we'll see. I hear somemon DIES in this one... Eheheheh!<br>Just a reminder, next one's Slenderman, then I'll be looking to requests for the story after that.  
>On with the terribly paced story, YEAAAAH!<strong> **_PotaTOS is love, PotaTOS is life. Wait... PORTAL AFTER SLENDERMAN! BRILLIANT ME! HAHAHA!_**

* * *

><p>Nightshade scowled, slowly getting up. She didn't want to be alone in this place, and she didn't want Ivee to be alone in this place. Stepping lightly over a few planks jutting out of the disheveled floor, she made her way to the door. Glancing about her, she put a paw on the door handle. But the door wouldn't open. "... Why's the door locked?" The Fennekin bent down to inspect it, and her heart skipped a beat.<p>

_It's not even locked. _Nightshade stepped away from it, tripping over the floor and falling hard on her tail. Her eyes darted around the room, and the sound of laughter reached her ears. "_Heehehehe... Ahahahaha..._"

"Are those... Children?! But nomon's here!" Nightshade, her heart feeling like it was about to burst out of her chest, padded near the heater.

"_Let's all go on a field trip together over summer vacation..._" Despite how cheerful the sentence was, the voice saying it was colder than stone. Nightshade shook slightly, looking at everything in the room.

"Wh-who... Who's that?! ... My head hurts so bad... What's with this ringing in my ears..." Nightshade looked at the white medicine cabinet, and another burst of children's laughter rang through her ears, making her fur stand on end. She looked over at the door, and gasped. It was tied over and over again with seemingly millions of strands of black hair. It wouldn't be moving anytime soon. She quickly turned her moves on, knowing what was coming next. She would only use it if she absolutely needed to.

The lights flickered off, further unnerving her. _Is... Someone there? _She was too afraid to say it aloud. _It sounds like a ball point pen writing on a piece of paper... _Holding her breath and trying to calm herself, she walked over to the desk. Before she could clearly see the writing on the journal that had been left there, she was shoved backward, a cry escaping her as she fell again. "_Sachi... Have you come to find me?_"

A swirling black mist appeared out of nowhere, and Nightshade scrambled up. "Wh-what the hell?!" It appeared in the figure of a human. Even more terrifying. She hated humans... "_EEEEEK! _S-stay away!" She ran to the door, pulling on it with all her might. _It's no use! _The door stayed firmly shut. "Where did this hair come from!? Arceus, help me!"

Then she remembered something. She pulled out the box of matches she had picked up earlier, and lit one, shoving it up to the hairs. But it wasn't strong enough to do much damage. The figure was creeping closer. She bolted, running on all fours, the sound of splitting wood screeching in her ears as the spirit knocked holes into the ground. The reassuring light of the candle in the corner had flickered out, hiding away from the mist like it was frightened.

The mist lumbered forward, another rift opening in front of Nightshade. She couldn't jump it. "Oh Arceus!" She screamed, the mist starting to wrap around her. Scrambling for a hold on the planks, she darted past the main body of mist, blindly deciding to go to the desk, where the previously inoperable desk lamp flickered on. That wasn't reassuring. The main mist came at her again. "Eek!" Nightshade gasped, and went for the cabinet, grabbing the bottle of rubbing alcohol. _Perfect! _Limping slightly, she ran into the mist again, crying out as she pushed through to the door.

Not caring what else she burned, she splashed the rubbing alcohol on the hair, and threw another match onto it. _Please work! _With a whoosh of foul-smelling fire, the hairs fell away from the door, burning up. The door freed, Nightshade slammed a paw down on the handle, and ran out. She stopped for a moment in the hallway, also freed of the mist to catch her breath in long, wheezing gasps.

I'm_ going to kill you . . ._" Came in a hiss all around the terrified Pokémon. Not knowing what else to do, Nightshade stumbled away, exhausted. She fell again, this time accompanied by coughs and retches. Trying to ignore the blood she was coughing up in absolute fear, she listened. Something was pattering down the hall.

"N-Nightshade?! What happened, are you okay?!" Came the familiar cry.

"Ivee... Sorry... For the mess..." Nightshade panted, getting up slowly, even though her legs felt like they wouldn't carry her.

"What are you talking about?! Don't apologize for that... Everything's okay." The Snivy helped her friend steady herself.

"Glk... I... I think I'll be fine... Thanks though. D-did you find Hunter?"

"Nope. Looks like we really are the only two Pokémon here. Well... The only two living Pokémon, anyway." Ivee was referring to their friends Drake the Mudkip and Rin and Len the Furret twins, all playing the main child spirits. "This place is just way too quiet..." She tried to lighten the mood. "How about you, Nighty? Is your leg any better? Are you okay to be up and about like this?"

"... While I was resting, I was attacked by this... Black mist apparition of sorts..." It took a few seconds for Ivee's smile to disappear.

"What?! Oh my Arceus, are you alright?!" She started to fuss over Nightshade.

"I... I think so. We should consider the infirmary off-limits from here on out..."

"That's okay with me, I'm just glad you're okay..." Ivee fixed her smile on again. "We'd better keep moving. Come on."

"Yeah... Okay... But where are we supposed to go?"

"Aaah... Well..."

"We've already been pretty much everywhere we can go in this Arceusforsaken school... The only other people we've come across are all dead!" Nightshade sighed. "It's hopeless... We're finished! And I'm so tired..."

"N-Nightshade! Come on, it's not... That bad. We'll figure something out! We're invincible, right?"

"... If we get out alive."

"Nightshade, are you that tired or something? This is so not like you! Raise your chin, we'll find a way out!"

Nightshade scowled. "What the hell's got you so chipper?"

"Uh... What?" Ivee was confused out of her mind at her friend's harsh words, out of place for the usually bubbly Fennekin.

"You just keep... Smiling and laughing..."

"... Do I?"

"Tell me, how long is that going to last if it turns out we can never go home?! Have you given that any though at all!? 'We'll figure something out'?! That's Tauros, and you know it!" Ivee stepped away from Nightshade. "I'm sure our families-" _Hah! Tauros. Nice job, script. _"- Are going to be really worried about us. They're going to search... And search. But they'll never find us! It'll be a great burden to all of them!"

Ivee's expression hardened. "You're wrong."

"How so?"

"About it being a burden. When you lose a loved one, you cherish that person's memory. It's never a burden. You just want to do whatever you can." Nightshade looked at the ground, sighing. "That's how I think the Pokémon we leave behind are going to feel."

"I don't know how it is for you and your family... But normal Pokémon don't work that way!"

"Nightshade..."

"Sorry... How about we split up? We can cover more ground that way... Maybe find a clue to help get us out of here. Seems the most efficient plan of attack, don't you think?"

"Who... Who says things like that?!" Ivee yelled. "I want to get home just as much as you do! Back to everyone! And I sure as hell don't want to make them worry about me!" _I have to apologiz- _Nightshade's thoughts were cut out. "But most of all... I don't want you, of all Pokémon... To speak to me like that."

"I-Ivee... I-I... I'm so..." Nightshade tried to piece the words together.

"... I'm sorry too, but it's okay, if that's what you think we should do, then let's split up..." Ivee fixed her smile on again. "I'll go down this way." Ivee walked past her, down the hall.

For a rare time, Nightshade felt like crying. "What the hell is wrong with me...?" Taking one more look at her friend, she walked up the hall. And so... In this endless nexus of closed spaces... Two friends who should have been thankful for the small favor of being trapped together in here... Were quickly split up... And it would be the biggest regret of my life in here.

* * *

><p>Ivee sat crying in a hallway, inconsolable. "Nightshade..." She wailed, "That jerk..." She rubbed a hand over her eyes to clear her tears, and went on. As she neared the crossroad of pits, she stopped for a moment. "... I think I just heard somemon calling out..." Ivee glanced over her shoulder, and followed it. <em>... That was the first time, huh. The first time I ever fought with Nightshade like that.<br>_

* * *

><p>Nightshade panted, speeding down the halls. <em>From the moment Ivee and I parted ways, the fear I'd been harboring since I had gotten there just kept growing. I felt like something else was in my head... Like I was under a spell. In my mentally distraught state, I ran all through the building, frantically searching for Ivee. I just kept calling her name, over and over again. When I finally came back to my senses, I found myself standing in the third floor hallway.<em>

"Ivee! Ivee, where are you?! Come on, Ivee! Don't leave me by myself in here!" Nightshade broke down, starting to cry. A slam came from down the hallway, and Nightshade stood up, walking towards the sound. "Ivee? Is that you?" Another slam. It was from inside the girl's bathroom. More slamming. Nightshade entered the bathroom, her stomach lurching. She knew what was coming.

The Fennekin tried the stall second from the end of the room. It was locked. But somemon was in there. It unlocked with a click, making Nightshade gasp. The door opened slowly...

_Hanging by a rope was Ivee, tears still in her eyes, her arms dangling by her sides, her tail dangling almost_ lifelessly. "IVEE! NOOOO!" Nightshade screamed, "Why? WHY?! No, NO!"

"N...i ... ghts... shade..." Came the words from the hung Snivy.

"Ivee! You're alive?! Hold on, I'll get you down!" Nightshade tried to untie the rope around Ivee's neck, but a choke came from her. "Ah! Sorry! Oh, what do I d-... The bucket. Hold on for just a little longer, Ivee!" Nightshade ran out of the bathroom, grabbing the bucket and throwing out the meat and maggots, bolting back in.

"Ivee, I'm right here, you're s-..." Nightshade's words were cut off in a whimper, and she dropped the filthy bucket. Nightshade stepped backward, trying to stop shaking. "_NOOOOOOOOO! No... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!_" She cried, "_Why, WHY WOULD YOU HANG YOURSELF?! You were smiling and laughing all this time... Didn't you say we'd find a way of here together...?_" She sobbed, tears pouring from her eyes. "Stop this... Don't leave me all by myself... S-say something! I want to apologize to you... For what I said!"

Here she was... My best friend...

Lifeless...

Hanging from a noose...

And came her last cry...

"Ooooooooah...! Ivee!"

...

..

.

"Why did this happen..."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Did I forget to say Spoiler Alert?<strong>

**Oh well. Onto the next chapter...**


	5. Attack of the Ghost-Kip and New Rooms

**AN: I usually blather on about nonsense in here, but. This time... I'll be trying to put the chapters from here on like the last one, but it's rather difficult to do that when there's so much dialogue. I'll do my best. I put up a list for what's next in the stories on my profile, if you dare venture there... But that's for later, this is now.**

**The reason why Nightshade reacted so strongly to Ivee's 'death' wasn't because it was real, it was just because of how horrible it was.**  
><strong>Ah well, my explaining skills were never good.<strong>

**On with the story.**

* * *

><p>"No..." Nightshade repeated, tears in her eyes. "NOOOOO!"<p>

* * *

><p>Riven shrunk back slightly. "Wasn't that... Nightshade's voice? And she was screaming... What do I do? I don't want the others to be scared..." She sighed, turning back to the very same classroom Nightshade and Ivee had dropped into. Walking carefully over scattered and broken wood, she went into it.<p>

Inside, Zahri was freaking out, and Grarr sat by, concerned. "Zahri, it's all right, please calm down..."

"B-but you heard it too! Outside, Nighty's voice..." Zahri shuddered. Riven tried to calm her down as much as she could.

"I-it probably wasn't a real voice! I'm sure it just sounded like one." She smiled. "Maybe it was the building settling. I'll go check it out though, and see if I can find what it really was. You stay here and wait for me, okay?"

"Wait, d-don't leave us! Please!" Zahri cried out, scared out of her mind.

"Zahri..." Riven ran through the facts in her head. Nightshade could be out there hurt, but Zahri wa-

Grarr butted in to her thoughts. "It's okay, I'll keep an eye on Zahri..."

"O-okay..." Riven was still completely unsure about this.

"Or, better yet, how about I go take a look, and you wait here?"

"Not a chance. Until I can verify everymon's safety, I want you two out of harm's way."

"Well... Okay, I guess, be careful Riven." Zahri was about to cry out again, but Grarr clapped a paw over her mouth, scowling.

"... I'm counting on you, Grarr. I'll be back in no time." Riven left quickly before Zahri could object. Confidence welling up in her, she walked up the shadowy halls, deciding to look at what was up the stairs. Trying to step lightly, the groans of the wood unnerving her, she bent down to pick something up. The dirtied label on the key read 3-A. Deciding that it was probably important, she kept it, and looked up the second flight.

A sheet of paper on two crossed boards nailed to the walls made her scowl. "No teachers allowed on the third floor..." She quickly left, and took the other hall. Another piece of paper. "Return home immediately. Those who stay here... Will go hungry and die of starvation..." Sighing, she took the door that swung open on one hinge. Classroom 2-A.

Edging around two desks, she made her way between two yawning, hungry pits that opened up in the ground. She glanced at the cabinet, thinking nothing of it... Until she realized that hair was crammed into the shelves. Because that's totally not weird. Looking up at the paper tacked to the wall to get away from the sickening sight, She would never know that it was the very same one that Nightshade read when she was looking for Ivee.

"I heard about this once before... I never realized how horrific it really was." The paper provided no salvation from terrifying sights. A slam made her jump, and she stared at the door next to her, flung open without care... But nothing seemed to have opened it. A not-so-helpful shortcut to the hallway. Riven almost literally dove out of it, and ran to the next classroom. Classroom 3-A. Still holding the key from when she got it, Riven jammed it into the lock, turning it and running in. Having an extremely bad feeling about it, she slowed to a walk, glancing at a line of desks flung to the side of the room. Another void opened up next to her. When she looked back in front of her, a blue light flickered to life.

"Agh!" She gasped, startled.

"_Well, if it isn't the teacher. Are you all by yourself? Decided to stop shaking and shivering with the other two back in 1-A, did you?_"

"I'll have you know that I heard one of my student screaming, and I've set out to find her." Riven's tone denied how scared she was.

"_I see. Regrettably... That won't be possible. This school exists in a nexus where multiple dimensions overlap. It's but a single closed space in a sea of close spaces. In other words, even though you may be in the same school as your screaming student, you and she occupy different dimensions. Which means... You two can never meet. If one of you should die, perhaps your body or your spirit may move from one space to another... Or..._" The spirit seemed to shudder. "_Maybe you can find some means of traversing the planes freely, as 'they' do. Consider this fair warning. Even if you should find the exact spot from which your student's scream emanated... __She herself may not be there. And if she isn't, there's not a thing you can do about it._"

"But... I heard her voice."

"_It's true that other children have been brought here quite recently. Children who, by all appearances, are indeed your students. But, as I suggested, time and space do not behave as you'd assume here. They're... Fragmented. You say you heard a scream. That scream may have taken place only a few minutes ago, or perhaps... It occurred in another space many hours before. It may have been an echo from the future. Who's to say? But, with this phenomenon as it is, it's entirely possible for two closed spaces to have some small influence on one another, even when out of synch._"

"It doesn't matter. I can't just ignore that agonizing scream and go on my merry way. Step aside!" Riven couldn't have known what was to come next, as she was about to exit through another door... It slammed shut, and a force knocked her back. With a yell, she landed near the cabinet, decked with knives and such. The very same spirit, this time flaring up in an angry red appeared before her.

"_Step aside?! ...Why don't you-_"A beep knocked out it's next word, "_off... You damned corporeal..._" The entire school rocked in an earthquake, making Riven hit the deck again.

"An earthquake?!" she gasped. With a slam, the cabinet fell, and the glass made an ear-piercing shatter. Riven cried out in pain, looking up at the spirit.

"_In all the world, the most vile, untrustworthy individuals of them all... Are you schoolteachers..._" It seemed to snarl, "_All you care about it your own well-being! You're not worried about your students, you're just worried about being held responsible if something should happen to them!"_

"Thi- this really hurts..." She moaned softly, trying to stay strong.

"_You're all the same! Every last one of you! And I won't be taken in by your lies anymore! When you see a problem among your kids, you just keep your distance, because you sure wouldn't want to get involved! Have to keep up appearances, right?! You just pick out the 'problem children' and chip away at them little by little until they either drop out or get expelled! You're not disciplining them, you're just raging at them!_"

"That's... Not..." She wheezed, but the spirit spluttered again:

"_I've never met a teacher who actually cared about her students! NOT ONCE!_"

"You... You're wrong..." With a creak, a force pushed down on the cabinet, and she cried out again.

"_All of your students are destined to starve to death in these Arceusforsaken halls, if they don't succumb to depression and kill themselves first! There's no other possible outcome. They'll all die meaningless deaths, just like I did! And they sure won't be thinking about YOU when they take their final breaths!_" The force pressed down harder, and Riven gasped out.

"_Any last words,_" Another beep rubbed out the words... For the readers. (**That swearing is a no-no!**) Nice mood breaker. "_I'll tell them to your students as I end their miserable_ lives..."

"Spare... m- AGH!" Riven pleaded, trying to reason with the raging spirit.

"_Heh... Haha! HAHAHAHAHA!_" It's light seemed to dance as it laughed maniacally, seemingly overtaken with insanity. "_Come again?_"

"Spare... My students..."

"_What was that?!_"

"Please, I don't care what happens to me... Just please, spare their lives!"

"_They're not your children. You're not their mother. Are you really STILL pretending to care about them? Filthy liar... Did you know? When you die in this accursed place, you experience the pain you felt at the moment of your death for all eternity! And I'm going to crush you to dust... The pain must be unbearable, and you're going to feel that pain every moment of every day, forevermore..._" Riven gasped for breath, but the spirit continued on."_Ask me to spare YOU. It's what you really want, isn't it? Be honest with me this time... And I'll consider sparing your life._"

"Don't you harm a hair on them, you hear?!"

"_Tch, you are one stubborn little_-" _Bleep!_ "-. _HAHAHA! Does it hurt? Aww, poor baby! Your corpse will look just like a dead frog on the side of the road!_"

_I'm losing consciousness quick... I think my ribcage is broken... Everyone... Live... I love you all..._

* * *

><p>"Whoa! Another earthquake!" Grarr yelled, dragging Zahri away from the hole she sat next to. The lights flickered in distress for a few moments, before Grarr sighed. "I think it's over..."Suddenly, Zahri stood up, surprising Grarr. "Woah, what's wrong?!"<p>

"I just got a really bad feeling! We've gotta go search for Riven!"

"But what if she comes back while we're gone, and we miss each other along the way!"

"We're going!" Zahri yelled, startling Grarr once again.

"All right, all right already! But if we don't have any luck finding her, let's just make sure we come back to this room, okay?" Zahri seemed close to tears, and Grarr glanced at the door. "How about we leave her a note? Zahri, do you have anything I could write with?"

"I've got a pen... But no paper, huh. Well, there's always the teacher's desk. Okay... 'Ms. Yui, we've gone to find you. If we pass each other and you see this message, wait right here. We'll be back.' ... How's that?"

"Blunt... And kind of sloppy."

"It's your fault we have to leave her a message at all you know."

"But... She might be in trouble!"

"Okay, okay! J-just don't cry! We'll find her!" Grarr was starting to hate being stuck with his frienemy. With that, Grarr led her out of the classroom, taking the same path Riven did. But something was different. As they came to Classroom 3-A, Grarr quickly stopped Zahri, scowling. "What the... Dead end, huh? Did this happen during that last earthquake? Guess we gotta turn back."

Glancing over their shoulders, they searched in Classroom 2-A. Grarr stood up to read the paper tacked to the wall. "It's really cold..."

"Not to mention dark and scary... Hey Zahri? Do you have any more of those candles, like the one you lit during the ghost story."

"Yeah, a few..."

"How about we light one up and take a quick breather? They give off some heat, right?"

"Sure..."

In no time, the candle had been put down, and a friendly flame glowed from it. "This candle of mine really is kinda warm..."

"Yeah, it is..." With those last words, the door that seemed like a decoration slammed open, scaring the living daylights out of Zahri. Grarr went first out of the door, looking around quickly. "We don't have anywhere else to go. I thought I saw a staircase back there, we'll go up it."

When they got there, the previous barrier lay in pieces, and the two passed over it cautiously. Zahri noticed something on the wall, and quickly read it. "This says, 'If you acquire any name tags from the corpses in the school, please bring them to me. I'll add them to my collection. - Custodian...' D-dead bodies?"

She quickly pushed up next to Grarr, who sighed and went through the door right next to the paper. A large force slammed against them both, and they fell hard. "W-what the?!"

"Ouch!" Grarr got up, and tried again, only to be pushed back again. Sighing, Zahri went over to the cabinets to look for any clues on what to do, and withdrew quickly.

"Grarr?"

"What?" The Mightyeena grunted, getting up and padding over to Zahri. "Oh... Well... That's something..." A rather crude drawing of four human children laughing as they stabbed an adult to death was scribbled onto a wrinkled piece of paper. "How... Unsettling." He took a last glance at the cabinet, and motioning for Zahri to follow him, they exited the room and walked down the stairs, mindful of how much it groaned under even their slight weight.

They had no choice but to go to south from there. When they arrived, a new note tacked to the wall diverted their attention for a few seconds, but it was no less unsettling than the general atmosphere of the school. "'Living friends who are able to retain their sanity and reason will be your final ray of hope.'" Zahri muttered, and Grarr looked down the new large hall, scowling. Human shoes were scattered about, and he strained his vision to look past that sight to the room beyond. Zahri quickly joined him when he started to pad through the large doorway.

"Entranceway?" Grarr muttered, looking up and down the large cases that lined the room. Many more shoes were scattered around, and Zahri stepped over them carefully as she searched the cases for anything useful. "Zahri, look!" Grarr gasped, making her run over. "Doors, maybe this is the way-" He tried a handle, standing on his hind legs. "- ... Out..." Grarr hissed a curse, and got down. "Might as well be painted on!" He muttered, and kicked the doors as he turned back to walk down the creaking boards that lined the floor between the cases.

He stopped to read another note. "'Each time you turn around, stop for a moment and ask yourself: is the world behind your back still there?' ... Nice." He turned away quickly and left, making the nervous Bayleef bolt after him. Farther up the hall, a bridge of planks spanned a rift in the floor. Grarr suddenly stopped, holding back a cry. "Human... Human bones!"

Zahri cringed, turning away from the sight. "C-come on, we have to find Riven." Zahri pushed past him, and Grarr bent down to look at the bones... And picked up the nametag of one of the skeletons.

Suddenly, a wavering voice moaned down the hallway. "_Ki... za... mi..._"

"Y-you hear that?!" Grarr gasped, standing up.

"We... We have to go, now." Zahri urged, walking on. Glancing at the remains one last time, Grarr followed her at a near-running pace, and the two quickly turned left. "Oh..." The Bayleef winced, turning away.

"Euck." Grarr focused his vision on the scraps of paper next to the rotting corpse. "'Victim's memoirs, one out of five'? Hm... 'I ate my friend today.' Well then, that's... Straight to the point... 'What else was I supposed to do? I was starving. We both were. And there's no food here. So we decided, together, that one of us should try to live just a little bit longer. If I ever get home, I'm supposed to tell all the people waiting for us what happened. We left it all up to a game of rock-paper-scissors. Loser eats winner. And I lost. I felt her blo' -" Grarr turned away in disgust, glancing concerned at Zahri.

Shuddering, the two Pokémon walked past the horrible-smelling skeleton, and peeked into the classroom next to it. It couldn't have been a classroom though... "What the hell kind of room is this? It's not like any classroom I've ever seen!" Zahri backed away quickly.

"We... We shouldn't be here..." Zahri groaned, trying to hold back her complaints about a headache as well.

"It looks like there's something in the back though..." Zahri almost stuck to Grarr as he crossed the rickety bridge... And they both recoiled. "Ack, what the hell?!"

"STAY BACK!" Zahri cried urgently, and the two backed away from the hunched figure of a Mudkip, glowing in the blue light of spirits. Inside, this very same Mudkip was laughing. It would be fun to make his friends run, at least for now. "You absolutely, positively must NOT look into his eyes!" Grarr saw something on a table behind the spirit, and ran up and grabbed it, careful not to look at him. The two bolted, and Grarr took a second to look at what he held in his paws. A rusted and blood-soaked nail puller was what he had picked up.

The two bolted down the right path in the hall, and finally allowed themselves a moment to breathe. The door next to them was like a decoration, so they got up and moved on. A human skeleton was sprawled out on the ground, and Zahri once again cringed. A hastily written slip of paper was next to it. "'Why sister? It hurts... It hurts... After I die the pain will continue forever. No... No' times four." Zahri slammed up next to him, making him jerk his head up from the paper. An angry red spirit flared up in front of them.

"_Sis... You lied to me. You're going to leave me behind, aren't you? I will never... Forgive you..._" The paper in front of the two Pokémon burst into flames and fizzled away. That was enough to get them running away. Grarr led the charge down the hallway, and when they reached the bodies, Zahri suddenly stopped.

"What is it?" Grarr gasped as she barreled past him, pretending to not hear as he cried, "Zahri, where are you going?!" She disappeared into the gloom and thoroughly confused Grarr. "What was that all about..." He charged after her, knowing how scared she was left alone. He tracked her to the front room, and found her... Staring at the wall... "Zahri, there you are! What was that all ab-..." He trailed off.

"No one is saying that!" Zahri screamed to nothing. "Today is my daughter's birthday. She's turning seven. We're going out together to celebrate." Another voice seemed to come from her. "What are you doing?! That's disgusting! WHY ARE YOU BOTH LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT?!" The two voices conflicted.

"Z-Zahri? Hey..." Grarr nudged her gently.

"Hmm? Oh, Grarr! What's wrong?" Zahri turned to him, seeming completely normal now.

"Uh... You... You were saying some pretty weird stuff just now..." Zahri was confused. Legitimately confused. Was she not aware? Grarr thought. Must be the pressure... "Nevermind. Probably just my imagination, don't worry about it." The two Pokémon walked out of the entrance and gasped. The Mudkip from before stared up at them, and they ran back immediately.

"It's that ghost from before! It left the classroom!"

"Don't let it touch you!" Zahri panted. Grarr knew better than to argue. He edged out again, and seeing that the spirit wasn't there, they bolted. Behind them, the Mudkip trundled along, a stream of dried blood on his mouth. They bolted up the stairs, this time not caring for the groans it emitted. The Mudkip stopped, turning away in amusement. There were others to mess around with, anyways.

Instinctively, they pushed into the classroom they started in, looking for Riven. Of course she wasn't there. Even so, they inspected the room once more. Grarr pulled away from the door, and got out the nail puller. "Here we are!" He pulled open the door, but it broke to pieces in the rough treatment. "Come on Zahri!"

A scrap of paper was pinned to the wall, and the two knew better than to leave it there. "That thing has tears on it..." Zahri muttered, noticing the dark spots on the page. "'Those who choose to ignore the darkness that dwells in the hearts of man may be stuck forever in a loop. For in this world, there are some truths that simply must be known, no matter how disturbing. But curiosity can be deadly, and other truths are best left untold. Beware the messages of the dead, for there be curses among them. Curses that can crush even the strongest of wills, demolishing all semblance of reason. If you wish to protect your sanity, take heed. Do not let your curiosity get the better of you. Do not read the Victim's Memoirs to their conclusion." Zahri almost recited, being the librarian back at home and also having a book in front of her face at all times.

Grarr looked over her shoulder, and stepping carefully behind her, inspected a curious machine in the corner of the new room. "This... Thing is like a pulley... It's all hooked up with these threads... I saw one of these in the room the ghost was first in!" He pulled the lever that jutted out from it, and it clinked to life. "I think we should go back to that other room and check out the pulley that was in there."

"With the Mudkip down there?!" Zahri gasped. Grarr had forgotten about him.

"We managed to avoid it pretty well, why can't we do it again?" That was the only thing he knew to say right then. Zahri sighed, and followed him. And they ran past the rather uninterested ghost-kip, and entered the odd room again. Grarr knew what to do, and pulled the lever. "Aaaall right... Now we just gotta find where that leads." They turned around, and Zahri gasped in dismay. The ghost had followed them into the room, and there was only one way back out. A one-way bridge.

Using pure skill, they darted around it as it came across the planks, and ran out of the room. Not wanting to wait and see if it was coming after them, the two Pokémon ran down the hallway. Grarr noticed that a bridge had opened up, spanning a gap. He veered Zahri towards it, and they raced across. Grarr glanced behind them, and seeing no flickering blue light, stopped them both. A paper on the wall. "'The... Cursed writings left behind by those who lost all reason must be read in the proper order. If one part is skipped, the next will never appear." Grarr panted heavily. "'If you insist upon reading such dangerous words, too, I pray you have a stong will and a sturdy mind.'"

Sides heaving, they walked on, and came across another set of stairs. They heavily climbed up it, and Zahri pulled past Grarr, turning towards a gap in the ground. "What's wrong? You... You need to stop for a minute?" He bet she wanted to say yes, but instead she muttered:

"No, I just thought this seemed like a good spot for another candle. No objections, I assume?" Grarr shook his head no, and Zahri planted down another candle. But even that friendly light wouldn't light all the Pokémon's paths...

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sorry everyone for taking so many long breaks! This is the longest chapter I've written ever... So yeah, hope you enjoyed! (Also the pacing changed a little after I took a break so there's that...)<strong>


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